(Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal court ruled on Friday that Iran must pay 2.65 billion dollars to the family members of the 241 U.S. servicemen killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. "The court hopes that this extremely sizable judgment will serve to aid in the healing process for these plaintiffs, and simultaneously sound an alarm to the defendants that their unlawful attacks on our citizens will not be tolerated," federal judge Royce Lamberth said in his ruling from a federal court in Washington D.C. Family members of the victims, "whose hearts and souls were forever broken, waited patiently for nearly a quarter century for justice to be done," Lamberth said. In May 2003, Lamberth ruled that Iran was responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing of a U.S. marine barracks in Beirut. The suicide attack was carried out by Hezbollah with the approval and funding of Iran's government officials, Lamberth said at the time.
Hezbollah, or Party of God, is based in Lebanon and has waged a campaign for dozens of years against Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon as a self-declared security zone. Hezbollah is blamed for anti-western and anti Israel terrorist acts dating from 1980s and is on the U.S. State Department's official list of terrorist organizations.
| I think you can put me down in the "strongly disagree" column on this. I feel for the family members, and yes, Iran is the puppet master behind Hezbollah - you need to have both your eyeballs on the floor to miss that. But Iran is going to ignore this. The court and the government have no means to enforce the decision except to sell Iranian property, which my guess is won't happen. The court and the U.S. judicial system are both going to end up looking frivolous. Once the regime has been changed in Iran the current government won't exist and the debt will be forgiven. |